Save the Earth and Tortilla Soup

Madelyn was sick and out of school for 3 days last week. When she went back she found she had missed 3 big assignments having to do with "Saving the Earth." Last weekend, to catch up, we researched facts on the internet and made a poster, a recycled craft, and a slide show. The picture above is from her slide show. She's demonstrating how one should use fans instead of air conditioning to save energy and produce fewer pollutants. We ran around the house and took as many pictures as we could of Madelyn turning off lights, saving water, and re-using grocery bags as trash can liners. We actually had quite a good time. The only snag came when it was time to burn the slide show on a DVD so she could take it to school. Jon has been in Michigan for a job interview all week (coming home tonight! Yay!), so I had no one to trouble shoot for me. Google came to the rescue, however, and gave me a simple solution for my perplexing error that kept popping up. So we got it done. I made Tortilla Soup for dinner tonight. It is delicious - amazing flavor.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

8 TBSP canola oil
10 corn tortillas
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
1 small bunch of cilantro
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
2 - 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes
5-6 c chicken stock
1/2 TBSP ground cumin
1 TBSP chili powder
4 bay leaves
1 lb skinless chicken thighs
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
14 oz canned or frozen corn
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
juice from 1 lime
avocado, shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream


Cut up 5 of the tortillas into 1/4 inch strips and fry them in 3 TBSP canola oil. You want them to be a golden brown but be careful not to burn them, they cook quickly. Depending on the size of your pot, you may have to cook several at at a time. Remove the strips from pot and transfer to some paper towels to drain. Season with a little salt.

Heat the remaining oil over medium high heat and sauté the onions for a couple of minutes. Then add garlic and sauté for another minute or two. Tear the remaining corn tortillas into bite size pieces and add to the pot.

Now add the cilantro, stir, and cook for a minute more. Stir in the bell peppers. Add the canned tomatoes with their juice and the chicken stock, cumin, chili powder, and bay leaves and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, add the whole chicken pieces and cayenne. Cover and simmer the chicken for 30 minutes until cooked throughout. Remove the chicken and put aside to cool. Add corn and beans. Continue to simmer.

Debone and shred chicken and return to the pot. Add your lime juice and taste for spiciness. If you like it hotter, add more of the spices.

Serve soup with the fried tortillas, freshly diced avocado, grated cheddar cheese, and sour cream.

Grand Mosque

Last week Jon and I (and baby) went to see the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque. It's been under construction since we moved here, and since then has always been a source of interest. It is a huge place that catches your full attention as you drive past on the road in and out of Abu Dhabi. It was fun to actually walk through and view it from up close.

family snapshots

Finally got together for a family snap shot. Looking forward to coming home and being in a real portrait studio. (You know, one without a treadmill and dirty dishes in the background)


The real us.

Back Alley

Another beautiful scrapbook layout, paper compliments of Jessica Sprague, sketch by Beggy Higgins.

The Hope Show

Welcome to the Hope Show, where it's all Hope, all of the time.

Basil Beauty

A sweet friend at church gave me this basil plant. Isn't she pretty sitting in my kitchen window? I will have to use its leaves soon before my black thumb kills it. It might have a fighting chance if I put Madelyn in charge of watering. She seems to have a knack with plants.

Peanut Butter Corn Flake Chewies

This is such a simple recipe, it's probably something everyone has in their files somewhere - but I tried them for the first time not very long ago at a church activity - got the recipe and love them very much. I have to hide them in the cupboard, or I'll pick at them at all day long.

Peanut Butter Corn Flake Chewies

1 c light corn syrup
1 c sugar
1 tsp salt
1 c peanut butter
6 c corn flakes

Mix corn syrup, sugar and salt in a large pot. Boil for 1 minute. Stir in peanut butter. Stir in corn flakes. Pour into a buttered 9x13" pan. Cool and cut into squares.

Smiles

I finally caught a smile on camera! Hope loves to ah-goo with us, and often flashes a big open-mouth smile to anyone who hovers over her and strikes up a baby-talk conversation.

Birthday Cookies

Madelyn turns 10 tomorrow. Hard to believe that spunky baby of not-so-long-ago is getting so grown up! This afternoon we made our traditional lolly pop cookies for her to take to school and share with teachers and friends. We will be celebrating just with family - a dinner out to her choice of restaurant and then a manicure or maybe some henna.

Laundry Baby

I think Hope is going for a record in dirtying her outfits. Here is a photo record of all the clothes she went through today. I left out the pajamas I was wearing when she spit up on me!

Rain, Rain

It is finally winter here in Abu Dhabi. The days have been cool and today it has been very rainy. The kids have needed umbrellas - they're the only ones to have them actually. Jon had to make a dash to the grocery store using one of their character umbrellas. He at least chose the "manly" tiger one. We were a little disheartened to realize the window above our bed leaked again, and ruined things we were storing underneath. That is the reason for Jon's sadness in the photo above. In the second photo you can see our soaked mattress, and the pink circle is highlighting where the water is actually soaking through the wall. We have a ledge outside our window where the water just pools and pours back into our room. Not happy. Buildings in Abu Dhabi are not built for precipitation.

Emma Pages

Book Worm

Madelyn was so quiet yesterday. She was reading all day, finishing up the most recent Gregor book. She's also in the middle of a Harry Potter, and 2 or 3 others! This pic shows her hiding from the camera's flash - it does make one's eyesight a bit spotty, thus hindering the ability to read a half dozen books simultaneously.

Holding Hope

Henry is always in our hearts, Hope is always in our arms.

New Church Villa

Our Ward has finally moved into our new villa. Jon helped all day Saturday, transferring chairs, electronics, tables, rugs, etc. Our new space is great. There is tons of parking and no neighbors to be annoyed with the increased traffic every Friday. This is the front, which can't be seen at all from the street because of the high walls around it.

Here we have the enormous kitchen. You can only see half of it in this picture. It is in the basement. There is a high-tech dumb waiter to convey the food upstairs to the living area.

This is one of my favvorite features. A big space on the second floor where I can nurse baby, while still listening to Sacrament Mtg down below.

The baptisimal font/pool party hangout. Everyone is excited about the nice pool.

Yummy Green Beans

My family went out for pizza tonight, but I stayed home with sleeping baby. She had her 2 month check-up with immunization shots, so was getting some much needed rest. I plan on walking over to the Lebanese Flower Restaurant tonight for a couple shwarmas, but in the meantime I needed something delicious and vegetabley. I tried out this recipe from Betty Crocker. It was so yummy! I squeezed a little lime juice over all at the end and gave it a satisfying zest to the whole deal. If you try this, don't leave it out!

Green Beans with Bacon, Onion & Tomato

1 lb green beans, cut into 1" pieces
4 slices bacon, cut up
1 medium onion,chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh or 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
dash pepper
2 TBSP lemon or lime juice

Simmer beans for 6 minutes, till crisp tender. Drain. Rinse with cold water. Drain.

Cook bacon till crisp. Remove from pan. Reserve 1 Tbsp fat in skillet. Cook onion in bacon fat for 3 min. Stir in tomato, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 min. Stir in beans, heat through. drizzle with lemon juice. Garnish with bacon.

Scrapnursing

It's amazing what you can do when you want to bad enough. I've been feeling inspired to do some scrapbooking. I bought myself this book by Becky Higgins for Christmas. I love her sketches, they make everything look good. Little Hope doesn't give me much time to do such things, however. So, I finally got my special nursing pillow and settled in with her at the computer. She was happy, I was happy - even while typing one-handed.

Primary activity

Our Primary "Meet Your Teacher" Breakfast is this Thursday. If the moon is where it's supposed to be for Islamic New Year, everyone should have the day off from school and work. If the moon is not where it's supposed to be, our breakfast will either be moved up a day or put off for a couple. It makes it a little hard to plan. One of our activities is to make little books about each child. I have pictures of everyone with crowns to paste on the covers. They were fun to make! We'll use the books to spotlight the children throughout the year.

Lulu Island

Thursday we were ready for an adventure. The girls have been on winter break for 3 weeks, and due to new baby, we haven't left the house much. Finally we decided to go to the zoo in Al Ain. As we headed out an hour behind schedule, and not much looking forward to the 1 1/2 hour drive, we made a spontaneous decision to go check out Lulu Island. We had no idea what was on the island, or why people go there, but the idea of a ferry ride and a train trip on the island (these were the only things we knew about the place) sounded like fun. As a bonus, the ferry to Lulu Island is just a 10 minute drive from our place. The entry to the dock looked locked down when we got there, so we decided to look around the Heritage Village first - which is just next door. The weather was perfect, so we had a nice time browsing the exhibits. The pictures above are taken from an exhibit depicting what used to be a typical Gulf Arab dwelling. Jon and the girls had to try out the swing. We were amazed at how well the wind tower worked, pulling the breeze into the home. The girls and I agreed living so much in the outdoors seems a lot more fun than our own high rise living. Of course, this comment is made in our perfect winter. We'd feel differently if we were in one of our suffocating summers.


Here we are on the ferry to Lulu Island. Just a short 5 minute trip to a (probably) man made beach spot. After the ferry we hopped onto the "Emirates Express" to take a tour of the island. People would shout whenever we got to a spot they wanted to play on, and the train would let them off. My favorite spot was a beautiful lagoon-looking swim area, complete with waterfall and swing set. In a few months we will go back to try some snorkelling along the pristine beach. There seemed to be lots of sea life, just from what we could see from the dock, so it should be fun.

Krispy Kreme in Abu Dhabi!

We always get excited whenever a piece of home comes to Abu Dhabi. A Krispy Kreme just opened in a new mall nearby. Jon and the girls salivated over their doughnut delights. I kept dairy free and instead indulged in my favorite candied-orange peel stuffed dates from Bateel. I never thought I'd say this, but I like dried fruit as much as I like chocolate. At least I like this dried fruit a whole lot.

Hello Hope!

Life is crazy with a new baby! Since it's been almost 4 years since we've had a baby in the house, I've nearly forgotten all the sleepless nights and endless worries about feeding, naptimes and crying causes. The warm fuzzy cuddles and first smile memories have stayed with me, however, and it's a delight to experience those again with our little Hope. Hope Elizabeth was born November 5th at a hefty 8 lbs 6 oz. I'm currently trying to figure out if Hope has a food sensitivity to something being passed through my breastmilk. I haven't eaten dairy in a week and I'm seriously hankering for some butter and cheese. I knew I ate a lot of dairy products, but I didn't fully realize how much I ate until I tried to strip it completely from my diet. Luckily I found some dairy free margarine, and boxed rice milk. That helps. I never imagined one of my babies would have food problems. This is my sweet babe number 5, but I'm entering unknown territory with this one. Still, she is a beauty. I gasp in amazement when I see her face in repose as she's sleeping. Magic.